How a tiny investment bank landed a role on Snap's giant IPO

Mischler Financial Group
Snap Inc, the parent company of Snapchat, is hoping to raise about $3 billion in its initial public offering.

The offering is being compared to the likes of other big tech IPOs such as Alibaba, Facebook, and Twitter. And it could be one of the biggest in 2017.

The list of underwriters for the initial public offering includes a number of prominent Wall Street firms including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan. There are also a few lesser known firms on the list.

"We were involved as an underwriter in the Alibaba IPO in 2014," Moran said. "There were some execs at other investment banks involved in Alibaba who joined the team at Snap who recommended us for the upcoming initial public offering."

Moran said that his firm's value proposition is in their distribution. He said Mischler plays a complimentary role to the "balance sheet banks," mainly because they are well-positioned to serve underserved middle markets.

"These investors are extremely loyal to our firm and act in partnership with us," he said. "They are the middle market accounts, the accounts that don't fall under the radar of a larger bank."

Signage for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. covers the front facade of the New York Stock Exchange
Thomson Reuters
In addition to Mischler's involvement in the Alibaba IPO, which was the largest in history, the firm has also worked on 500 to 600 debt capital market transactions, according to Moran. The bank also does a lot of Fortune 500 company share repurchases.

They've come a long way since their humble beginnings.

"We started by just doing business in the secondary markets. So like equity, fixed income, etcetera," Moran said.

He said this was the way they conducted business for years.

"But then in 2009, when a lot of companies went into receivership, we got our first leap into equity capital markets in Citigroup's IPO," he said.

Moran said the Department of the Treasury's push for diversity played a role in their selection for the Citigroup IPO. And since then he said their hard work and altruistic mission to serve veterans has made them an attractive partner.

"We are big on giving back to our respective constituents. We do that by giving back monetarily to organizations like Wounded Warriors," he said."And also by training and mentoring disabled veterans."